Kieranuk said:
What is the best material for constructing the home aquarium, glass or plastic?
Aquariums constructed of plastic hold the heat better, are more transparent, easier to move around, can be drilled easily and less likely to leak or break. On the negative side fish tanks built out of plastic are easy to scratch although scratches can sometimes be buffed out. Some types of plastic when used in aquarium manufacture will craze over time which may not weaken them but the effect is often unsightly. If the plastic aquarium is not designed properly and insufficiently thick material is used, it will bow out and look somewhat unattractive.
Aquariums built out of glass will lose heat faster than plastic fish tanks; glass tanks are less transparent than plastic aquariums often adding a slight green blue color to the aquarium tank water. The larger glass aquariums starting around 80 gallons require 2 people to move about and lift up on their stand; I use a padded hand truck to move my big glass aquariums. Glass will scratch but less often especially when using a proper porous fiber pad to clean algae from inside the fish tank window. Grains of sand are the main cause of scratches on aquarium tank windows as they get wedged between the cleaning pad and the glass.
When aquarium glass breaks it is most often a single straight line fracture which will leak but usually very slowly. This is not the case with tempered glass which breaks into very small fragments much like a broken automobile window. Tempered glass is most often used in aquarium bottoms and to the best of my knowledge can not be drilled successfully once tempered. In other words if your glass fish tank breaks you should have lots of time to rescue the fish and drain the water out before it floods the house; if you are home that is. Almost always you will hear the loud thump when a glass tank breaks.
Shipping a large glass aquarium is very costly and there is a high rate of breakage with common carriers. Plastic aquariums can be shipped with ease and relatively inexpensively.
You might want to ask questions of the aquarium manufacturers before taking the plunge. I prefer glass aquariums myself; I see no overriding reasons to pay the extra money for a plastic fish tank. Just for the record I have many plastic aquarium tanks including a 600 gallon aquarium measuring 96 by 48 by 32 high made of ¾ thick Plexiglas.
Good luck.
